The show focuses on three young monsters — Ickis, Oblina and Krumm — who attend an institute for monsters under a city dump and learn to frighten humans. Many of the episodes revolve around them making it to the surface in order to perform "scares" as class assignments.[2]

Ickis (voiced by Charlie Adler) - Ickis is a small red monster who, due to his large ears, is often confused with a rabbit. He is the son of Slickis, a famous scarer. He seems the most skittish of the monsters, but is also a capable leader. Ickis looms (grows in size) to scare, and comes from a long line of loomers.

Oblina (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) - Oblina comes from a wealthy monster family, and is considered by The Gromble to be his best student. She is shaped like a black-and-white, upside-down candy cane, resembling a banded sea krait. One of her favorite methods of scaring humans is reaching within herself and pulling out her internal organs, and she has considerable talent for shapeshifting into various terrifying forms. She also has a talent for inducing nightmares in humans, by sticking her finger in their ear and tickling their brains while they sleep. When voicing Oblina, Christine Cavanaugh attempted to make the voice sound like a British version of the actress Agnes Moorehead.[3]

Krumm (voiced by David Eccles) - Like the rest of his family, his eyeballs are not attached to his body, and are usually carried in his hands; if he requires the use of both hands, he can carry them in his mouth. His most valuable tool in scaring is his overwhelming armpit stench, as well as using his eyeballs.

The Gromble (voiced by Gregg Berger) - The Gromble is a tall, green-blue monster with two tufts of hair, a beard and a tail. He wears a belt around his waist and a red pump on each of his four feet. Along with Ickis, he is one of the few monsters who can hear the Pool of Elders — the source of monster existence that is made of the very substance of fears. The Gromble uses the Viewfinder which his students sit in so that he can view their scaring activities.

The Snorch (voiced by David Eccles) - The torturer/disciplinarian of the Monster Academy who works for The Gromble and is often seen with Zimbo. Though the Snorch just makes vocal effects, he once wore a voicebox translator (with the voice of it being provided by Brock Peters) in one episode.

Zimbo (voiced by Tim Curry) - Zimbo is a monster who resembles a bee with one mammal-like leg and a humanoid face with green hair. He is the Gromble's assistant in his class and is always seen on the head of The Snorch.

Simon the Monster Hunter (voiced by Jim Belushi) - The recurring antagonist of the series. Simon is a human who is determined to prove that monsters exist. He wears a thick-collared jacket and glasses.

Slickis (voiced by Billy Vera) – Ickis' father and was one of The Gromble's favorite students.

Horvak (voiced by David Eccles) – Krumm's father. He lost one of his eyes at the Battle of Concord and wears a black glove over that respective hand, similar to wearing an eye-patch. He was considered to be one of The Gromble's worst students and now works as a mold farmer.

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was created by Gábor Csupó and Peter Gaffney,[4] and was produced by Csupó's company Klasky Csupo, which also created the animated shows Rugrats and Duckman.[5][6] Before the final title was chosen, which took over 5 years, the series had the working titles Monsters and Real Monsters.[7][8][9] The show was conceived after Csupó and his wife and creative partner Arlene Klasky were approached by the network Nickelodeon to create a follow-up series to Rugrats. Csupó was inspired to write a show about monsters because his own young children loved them.[10] He also said he knew Nickelodeon would not want a series about human characters because everybody else was pitching shows about animals. Csupó drew some sketches of possible monsters on a piece of paper and successfully pitched the idea to the network: "I wanted them silly and not too skillful – and the idea worked."[11]

Nickelodeon programming director Herb Scannell said the character design in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was partially inspired by Yellow Submarine, a 1968 animated film inspired by The Beatles.[12][13] The character Gromble, in particular, bore a close resemblance to the Blue Meanie characters from that film.[14] Csupó said some elements of the show have a look similar to the film noir genre, and called the city dump where the monster characters reside reminiscent of the visual style from the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985).[12]

The characters guest-starred in the 1999 Rugrats episode #106 "Ghost Story". Before that, David Eccles, the voice of Krumm, provided the monster voice coming from under Chuckie's bed.

On March 22, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the home video rights to the series from Nickelodeon.[15] They have subsequently released the first three seasons on DVD.[16][17][18] The fourth and final season was released on June 10, 2014 as a Shout! Select title.[19]

On October 8, 2013, Shout! Factory released Aaahh!!! Real Monsters- The Complete Series on DVD.[20]

Shout Factory Releases

Release Date

Discs

Episodes

Season 1

October 5, 2011

2

13

Season 2

May 15, 2012

2

13

Season 3

September 11, 2012

2

13

Season 4

June 10, 2014

2

13

Complete Series

October 8, 2013

8

52

In the United Kingdom, 4 volumes are available as exclusive releases in Poundland stores. Volume 1 contains the 1st 9 episode (5 half-hours) from Season 1. Volume 2 contains the 1st 8 episodes (4 half-hours) from Season 2, while the remaining 2 volumes make up the 1st 16 episodes from Season 3.

First-run episodes of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters aired on Nickelodeon from 1994-1997, and the series continued to air reruns until approximately 2004.[citation needed] From 2002-2006 the series aired on Nicktoons TV (now Nicktoons). In 2006, the series was shown occasionally on Sundays on Nickelodeon's "Nick Rewind." It often appears on Nick.com's Turbo Nick, an online programming broadcast. In July 2011, TeenNick debuted The '90s Are All That, a block of classic Nickelodeon programming from the 1990s, which included episodes of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

Josef Adalian of The Washington Times praised the show's animation and sense of humor, although it was not as "hip and witty" as The Ren & Stimpy Show or The Simpsons. Although he felt the show would appeal to children over 9 as well as adults, he said it may not appeal to those who "react negatively to semi-scary sights and gags about body odor, physical punishment or abusive older siblings".[21]USA Today writer Matt Roush called it "garish and blissfully silly" and praised the show's "outrageous characters have just enough Ren & Stimpy grodiness, but tempered with exceptional sweetness".[14] Ginny Holbert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it a "cute and clever" series with "wit and inventive creatures", and compared the animation to the work of artist Peter Max.[22]Gannett News Service writer Mike Hughes called it a "terrific cartoon series",[23] and said the show's "wildly perverse humor" had a "distinctly European style" that reflected Gábor Csupó's Hungarian background.[24]

The Plain Dealer writer Tom Feran called the show "good fun" and favorably compared the series' premise to that of the animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas.[13]Boston Herald writer Frances Katz wrote, "If there was ever a great title for a cartoon, it has to be Nickelodeon's Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'."[25] Not all reviews were positive. The November 1994 issue of Parenting magazine listed Aaahh!!! Real Monsters as #1 in its top ten list of the worst new shows of the television season, describing it as "Graphic and scatological; it's just plain gross."[26] Some media outlets pointed out similarities between Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and The Brothers Grunt, an MTV animated television series about a group of grotesque humanoid characters. Gábor Csupó rejected these comparisons and claims his show was more story- and character-driven with a different visual style.[12]

Mattel produced a series of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters action figures in 1995. They each stand approximately 4 inches (10 cm) tall and include an action feature. Other products based on the cartoon include Fleertrading cards, books, plush toys, pens, hats, backpacks, notepads, cups, gum, and videos. At one point, General Mills also included small promotional flip books of Ickis, Krumm, Oblina, and the Gromble in its Cinnamon Toast Crunch breakfast cereal.[citation needed]